Under a dreary Southern California sky that made for nearly ideal time trial conditions, Mara Abbott (Team High Road) surprised few by winning the Redlands Cycling Classic prologue — The Sun Time Trial — by a resounding 25 seconds over second placed national team member Katharine Carroll (Aaron’s). Abbott’s teammate, Kim Anderson, rounded out the podium less than 1 second behind Carroll.

American cross-country mountain bike racer Adam Craig has his sights set on the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. That means for the next few months he will be battling it out on the World Cup and National Mountain Bike Series with his fellow Americans for a slot on the U.S. team. In between races, Craig skis, kayaks and is the rally car co-driver for his Giant teammate Carl Decker. VeloNews.com is along for the ride. —Editor

Oakland, CA – The NorCal High School Mountain Bike League held its third race of the season on March 30th at Grant’s Ranch Park in Santa Clara. It was a day that couldn’t decide if it was warm or cold as a steady breeze brought clouds across the venue valley. The six-mile course started riders with a long, tough climb right off the get-go that was followed by a rip-roaring descent that took riders into some mini-rollers before they had to dig in deep in the grassy start/finish area.

Leif Hoste’s dream of winning the Tour of Flanders is turning into a nightmare. Three times second in the past four years, Hoste has come as close as a Belgian rider can get to heaven without riding through the pearly gates.

Hincapie™ Sportswear, Inc., a leading manufacturer and marketer of distinctive clothing for the performance cyclist, has been chosen as the official cycling apparel supplier for the 2008 Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T (Tour) for the third consecutive year. Hincapie will provide premium, Tour-custom cycling apparel for stage winners, race leaders and souvenir sales. Designs for the 2008 award jerseys were provided for a fourth consecutive year by Bigelow Advertising, based in Atlanta, Ga.

The Redlands Classic, which begins Thursday April 3 in Southern California, marks the opening of the USA Cycling NRC series. By this time of the year, the NRC competition is usually well under way. But with the MERCO races in Merced and the Central Valley Classic in Fresno not having NRC status this year, the race for the NRC crown is off to a late start.

For the first time since winning the prologue, the MTN Energade team of Kevin Evans and David George won Thursday's 130km Absa Cape Epic stage in a sprint with two other teams. The previous day's stage winners, the Bulls team of Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm, were second, followed one second later by the Cannondale Vredestein team, Roel Paulissen and Jakob Fuglsang, who aggressively defended their overall lead. On stage 5 Paulissen had to ride the final 18km on a bare rim and the team finished in fifth position, losing about half of its overall lead.

Dutch flier Joost Posthuma (Rabobank) pulled the double in Thursday’s time trial finale at the Three Days of De Panne to claim the stage and the overall crown in one hard effort. Posthuma had just enough in the tank to erase a 27-second gap to overnight leader Enrico Gasparotto (Barloworld) to vault from eighth to the top spot on the podium.

David George and Kevin Evans of MTN 1 sprint to victory during stage 6 of the 2008 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race from Bredasdorp to Hermanus in the Western Cape, South Africa.

For the second day in a row, British sprinter Mark Cavendish bested the pack in Belgium’s Three Days of De Panne. The High Road fastman out-kicked Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) to win Thursday’s 119km morning sector as part of the two-stage finale. Slovenian Borut Bozic (Collstop) came through second with Danilo Napolitano (Lampre) fourth. Like he did in Wednesday’s stage, Cavendish won once again in a long sprint. Italian Enrico Gasparotto (Barloworld) conserved his leader’s jersey going into the afternoon’s decisive 14km individual time trial.

The winners of the 2007 Absa Cape Epic, the Bulls squad of Stefan Sahm and Karl Platt took their first victory of the 2008 race, winning the fifth stage from Swellendam to Bredasdorp. The two out sprinted the Alb-Gold team of Hannes Genze and Joschen Kaess for the win. The victory took a sizable chunk out of the overall lead of the Cannondale-Vredestein squad of Jakob Fuglsang and Roel Paullissen, who crossed the line in 5th place, nearly eight minutes down.

Mark Cavendish (High Road) charged to victory in Wednesday’s second stage of the Three Days of De Panne in Belgium, while Enrico Gasparotto (Barloworld) retained the overall lead. Cavendish, who notched 11 wins in his rookie season last year, unloaded an electrifying sprint to relegate Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) to second with Sebastien Chavanel (FDJeux) coming across the line for third.

Slipstream-Chipotle’s Tom Danielson, Rock Racing’s Oscar Sevilla, Health Net-Maxxis’ Rory Sutherland and Toyota-United’s Chris Baldwin will be among the high-caliber riders rolling out of the start house Thursday at the Redlands Bicycle Classic.

It’s been a bumpy ride for Andy Bajadali. The 34-year-old has gone from pro mountain biker to pro roadie, to amateur roadie and back to pro roadie. Oh, and there was a stint living in a Turkish slum, while racing in Belgium with his buddy Alex Candelario, thrown in there for good measure. This year, Bajadali is shaking off a rough early season and heading into the Redlands Bicycle Classic as the defending champion, riding for Kelly Benefits Strategies-Medifast.

Roadie Happy Hour! Michigan Bike Race Announcer Jamie Smith and "Frazz" Illustrator Jef Mallett Launch Book at Kinetic Systems Join Jamie Smith and Jef Mallett for a book launch event at Kinetic Systems in Clarkston, Michigan, on Saturday, April 5th at 4pm. Smith and Mallett are launching their new book Roadie: The Misunderstood World of a Bike Racer during a happy hour event at the shop. ROADIE Book Launch Event Saturday, April 5 beginning at 4:00 p.m. Kinetic Systems 60 S. Main St. Clarkston, MI 48346 (248) 625-7000 www.kineticsystemsbicycles.com

The Dolphin-Trek squad of Alban Lakata and Bart Brentjens took the fourth stage of the Absa Cape Epic, winning the 121km journey from Riversdale to Swellendam in 4:28:38. The duo finished 23 seconds ahead of MTN Energade and race leaders Cannondale-Vredestein.

It's been something of a tradition here at VeloNews to start the month of April with things a bit skewed from the normal. In the past, on April 1st, we've fired Patrick O'Grady, revealed the development of new mag-lev wheel bearings, declared Dick Pound to be head of the UCI (with Hein Verbruggen taking the helm of WADA) and scorched the French countryside with fatally flawed sunflowers that perfectly match the color of the Maillot Jaune. Yup, it's April Fool's Day.

Barry Wicks’ transition from top-tier cyclocrosser to mountain bike strongman appears to be going well. The 26-year-old Kona rider, already a household name on the domestic ‘cross scene, took his first-ever NMBS victory at Sunday’s short-track in Fontana, California. Wicks out-sprinted breakaway companion Adam Craig (Giant) to take the STXC win and then followed up the victory with another win, again out sprinting Craig to take the Super D title.

If Jennie Reed couldn't quite believe her world title, then neither could the home crowd at the Manchester velodrome. Reed's jubilant gold medal in the women's keirin, the climactic event in five days of racing, was greeted with stunned silence by the British fans who had become drunk on the success that Team GB had claimed in the 2008 World Track Championships. "This is the first world championship of my career and I have got a gold medal so I am just elated," Reed said, as she came off the track.

American Jennie Reed ended Britain's gold rush when she overpowered Victoria Pendleton to win the keirin in the final event of the world track cycling championships on Sunday. Defending champion Pendleton, a gold winner in the team sprint and sprint, claimed the silver medal, with Germany's Christin Muche taking the bronze after a photo-finish decision.

Alejandro Borrajo (Colavita-Sutter Home) sprinted to victory Saturday in stage 2 of the San Dimas Stage Race. Borrajo overpowered Henk Vogels (Toyota-United) and Jonathan Cantwell (Jittery Joes) to take the 84-mile San Dimas Hospital Road Race. Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) retained his leader’s jersey, but at a cost — a 5 percent time cut that trimmed 17 riders from the field saw the team lose Peter Dawson, Rahsaan Bahati and Adam Switters, leaving a five-man squad to defend Sevilla’s lead in Sunday’s finale, the Incycle/Cannondale San Dimas Classic criterium.

Eric Schildge (Fiordifrutta) edged out CCB International's Colin Jaskiewicz and Daniel Estevez (CRCA/Sakonnet Technology U25) in a photo finish at the Michael Schott Memorial Race in Marblehead, Massachusetts, on Sunday. The Marblehead race, held on a rolling 2.2-mile circuit on a rocky neck jutting into the Atlantic Ocean, is one of the longest running one-day races in New England, and a traditional season opener for the New England road scene.

Australian Simon Gerrans (Crédit Agricole) won stage two of the Critérium International on Sunday ahead of breakaway companion Jens Voigt (CSC), who took the yellow jersey and seems ideally positioned for the final victory. Gerrans finished four seconds ahead of the German and 90 seconds up on Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne), who took the bunch sprint for third in the 98.5km stage between Les Vieilles Forges and Monthermé. The race was neutralized for more than 30 minutes because of a demonstration by employees of a nearby factory.

Carlos Hernandez (P&S-Specialized) and Leda Cox (America's Dairyland) won stage 2 of the 22nd Tucson Bicycle Classic on Saturday, a windswept affair run on a rolling, 20-mile circuit. Hernandez and teammate David Salomon finished one-two in the Sahuarita Loop Road race (80 miles for men, 60 for women). The duo crossed in 3:12:25, 13 seconds ahead of a chase group containing race leader Joshua Liberles (Colavita New Mexico-JNF), led in by Alex Bhogal (Mazurcoaching.com).

A beaming Jennie Reed, cheered on by her American teammate, Taylor Phinney, stepped down from the medal podium in Manchester after claiming the bronze medal in the women's sprints, to pronounce herself "very pleased" with her third place, behind Simona Krupeckaite of Lithuania and - look away now if you're suffering from Brit-fest fatigue - gold medal winner, Victoria Pendleton of Team GB.

Far from the hullabaloo and pre-Olympic hype surrounding Great Britain’s track team, Jennie Reed of the United States was quietly making her resolute way into the medal positions in the women's sprint finals. Reed, 29, has maintained the good form that took her to runner's up spot in the sprints in the Los Angeles World Cup earlier this year, where she also won the keirin.

Britain's Chris Hoy made a mark in track cycling’s history books by winning his first try at a world sprint title in Manchester, England, on Friday Hoy, the reigning world keirin champion and a former kilometer and team sprint champion, claimed the gold medal ahead of Frenchman Kevin Sireau in a tense two-round final. Sireau, racing in white as the reigning World Cup sprint champion, finished second to claim the silver with his French compatriot Mickael Bourgain claiming the bronze after a two-leg victory over Italian Roberto Chiappa.

If I were to write the perfect classified ad to recruit top female athletes to track cycling it would look like this:

Tired of your current sport? You might have an Olympic future in Cycling! Oarswomen, listen up – Rebecca Romero of England came from a top career as a single sculler to win a silver medal in cycling in less than 365 days. Add another year to that and she’s a double World Cycling Champion, supported by the best funding in women’s cycling. And to top it off, the crowds and media LOVE her, she’s a national hero. What more could a girl want?

Australia's reigning Olympic 500 meter time trial champion Anna Meares is celebrating after hearing she has qualified for the sprint event in Beijing. Australia's sole women's sprint spot at the Games was under threat because of Meares' place in the world rankings, but results from the world championships in Manchester, England, on Friday mean she can no longer be overtaken. Meares is absent from the world championships as she recovers from injuries sustained in a serious crash at the Los Angeles round of the World Cup in January.

On a foggy December day in 1983 the newly formed National Off Road Bicycle Association held its first event in the Los Padres National Forest outside of Solvang, California. A bushy haired Kansas kid named Steve Tilford escaped with the win that day, riding in his first ever mountain-bike race on a rig slapped together just a day earlier.

You know the guy who couldn’t pass a calculus exam even if the fate of the human race depended on it, but who can count blackjack cards like one of those brainy MIT kids or Rain Man? Well, I guess don’t really either, but I do know I am not that guy. After being put through my paces at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine testing lab, I did a similar battery of threshold and power exams outdoors a week later. Much to my chagrin — but not surprise — the outdoor results were very similar to the indoor ones. I remain average.

The following press release was sent by the Australian cycling federation: Olympic and World Champion, Brad McGee, moved a step closer to his goal of a fourth Olympic Games berth with a solid performance in the individual pursuit on day one of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester. McGee was the fifth fastest in qualifying, missing a chance to ride off for a medal, but posting his fastest time since 2004 when he claimed silver in the event at the Athens Olympic Games along with gold in the teams pursuit.

On or off the track, you don’t mess with Arnaud Tournant, the powerhouse French sprinter who remains one of the most feared sprinters in the world and perhaps the best kilometer rider ever to take to the track.

Reigning world sprint champion Theo Bos says he will not shy away from his rivals when the blue-ribbon event of the world track championships gets under way Friday in Manchester, England. And the flying Dutchman believes his main challenger, big Frenchman Kevin Sireau, lacks the necessary experience to battle his way through to the gold medal. With only five months to go to the Beijing Olympics, and despite keeping a low profile in the World Cup this season, Bos is still considered the man to beat in the men's prestigious speed events.

Bob,
I was talking to a cycling friend today and telling him how my riding had been going and happened to mention an accident I was in while riding a couple of weeks ago. He laughed and said he was just reading a similar story and showed me the birdman case. I found it very interesting and it left me with questions about my incident. So here goes my story.

The world championships began with an unscheduled event, early morning blood draw from the UCI. The Holiday Inn was targeted at an ungodly hour for our teenage son (7am!) and no doubt, no one else was happy either. In any case, the Brits, Aussies, Dutchies and USA team were all tested. Welcome to the big leagues. Luckily, Taylor exercised his prerogative as a teenager and went directly went back to sleep after a little breakfast, of course (another prerogative of the teenager?

Until Wednesday morning, David Brailsford's ethical stance on Team GB's attitude to doping had been unquestioned. The British team's Performance Director has long championed clean and fair competition and maintained that any deviation from that philosophy would not be tolerated.

Olympic pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins lifted British spirits by successfully defending his individual pursuit crown here at the world track cycling championships on Wednesday. Wiggins overpowered surprise Dutch finalist Jenning Huizenga in a time of 4:18.519 to claim his second consecutive gold after his victory in Mallorca last year. Huizenga, who had beaten Wiggins in qualifying, finished in 4:23.474 to claim the silver medal. Russian Alexei Markov claimed the bronze after beating New Zealand's Hayden Roulston in their medal match-up.

Niklas Axelsson’s career looked dead in the water when he tested positive for EPO at the 2001 world cycling championships. He admitted his guilt and was later banned for four years by the Swedish cycling federation. The 35-year-old then mounted a comeback in 2004, but was stricken with testicular cancer in 2007 only to reappear yet again with Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli this season. Persistence paid off Wednesday when he won the 175.6km second stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy.

Fran Ventoso (Andalucía-CajaSur) won the third stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León on a day that lived up to his name. “Ventoso” means windy in Spanish, but strong northern breezes couldn’t stop his explosive sprint atop a one-kilometer rising finish to snag the win in a perfectly timed acceleration past Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi). Overnight leader Alberto Contador (Astana) retained his four-second lead over teammate Levi Leipheimer while Christian Vande Velde (Slipstream-Chipotle) slotted up to fifth and Slipstream retained the team classification lead.

The world track championships begin in Manchester, England, on Wednesday with the host nation’s Great Britain team expecting to dominate the five-day event. As if home advantage wasn’t enough, Team GB can lean on the experience and talent of riders such as Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Victoria Pendleton, as well as the fast-track progression of a clutch of young hopefuls.

With three race weekends down and five to go in the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference schedule the Colorado State University Rams Cycling Team has a commanding lead in the conference title race. At the University of Colorado’s Criterium on Sunday, the CSU Rams showed once again why they are the force to be reckoned with in the RMCCC with commanding performances coming from every category.

The heat is on in chilly Manchester. The British press says it was the coldest Easter in 40 years but inside the velodrome it is definitely starting to warm up. You can feel the heat pouring from the vents. A hot track is a fast track: the air is less dense. It’s physics — bodies hurl through space faster with less resistance. This storied Manchester track is the British national cycling center. It’s the home of SEVEN current world champs. And it is proven that, in the right conditions on this track, world records will fall.

Liquigas went full bore in the double-stage opener of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy on Tuesday. The 2002 U23 world champion Francesco Chicchi sprinted to victory in the morning road stage and then the Italian squad won the 11.8km team time trial afternoon stage ahead of Acqua e Sapone and Tinkoff Credit Systems.

Henk Vogels doubles up with a pair of victories in Colorado, Ivan Stevic returns to racing with a 2nd place finish After a late spring snow storm dusted Boulder, Colorado Saturday evening, it was a bright and sunny Easter Sunday for the 100-man field toeing the line for the 60-minute Colorado University Research Park Criterium. With a number of local pros on hand, the pace was fast from the start. Toyota-United used their strength in numbers to establish the winning break in the opening 25 minutes.

Karsten Kroon (CSC) wanted to win a stage at Paris-Nice earlier this month to demonstrate he’s on track for the upcoming spring classics. He could only manage second in a breakaway stage into Sisteron, but the 32-year-old Dutch rider made up for the close call with a tidy sprint finish Tuesday in the second stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León to prove his point.

Going back to the drawing board won’t be an option for Team Australia at the end of the world track cycling championships this week. With the Beijing Olympics just around the corner, the Australians — and fellow track giants Britain and France - know it's now time to set down markers or forget dreaming about gold medal success in China this August. Australia set a blistering pace on the Athens Olympic velodrome in 2004, but for the past two years the Aussies have been playing catch-up to the new track pacesetters Britain.

Briton Emma Pooley won the Trophee Alfredo Binda, the second round of the UCI's World Cup, soloing to victory by more than a minute in the 120-kilometer race from Cittiglio to Varese in Italy. Pooley finished 1:08 of the field sprint, which was won by the Netherland's Suzanne De Goede, who finished ahead of former world champion Diana Ziliute of Lithuania. Pooley is now tied for first in the World Cup standings with Katheryn Curi Mattis, winner of round one in Geelong, Australia, last month.

Alberto Contador and his Astana teammates aren’t going to the Tour de France this summer, so they look intent on winning everything else instead. Just a day after Tomas Vaitkus sprinted to victory in Holland, last year’s Tour champ surged to an impressive time trial victory to open the Vuelta a Castilla y León on Monday in northern Spain. Contador stopped the clock on the technical 9.7km course in 11 minutes, 39 seconds, just 3.6 seconds faster than Tour of California champ and Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer.

The world’s premier female road racers will take to the tarmac this Monday, March 24th, for the second round of the 2008 UCI women’s World Cup, held at Italy’s famed Trofeo Alfredo Binda race, just north of Varese. The race marks the first time since 2005 that Italy has hosted a round of the women’s World Cup. The undulating 121km course includes two long and three short loops, and will run on roads just north of the route of this year's UCI world championships. The 2008 edition marks the 36th running of the Trofeo Alfredo Binda event.

It wasn’t a sprint or an attack over the Poggio that won the 99th Milan-San Remo. It was Fabian Cancellara's instinct for big drama in cycling’s biggest days.

La Classicissimia, La Primavera – whatever you call it, Milan-San Remo is one of cycling’s most electrifying and prestigious races, one of the sport’s treasured “monuments.” Whoever wins San Remo is king of Italy for a day. Twenty-five eight-man teams line up Saturday in front of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan for the 298km run past the picturesque headlands jutting out of the Italian Riviera toward the finish in San Remo.

Roadie: The Misunderstood World of a Bike Racer Entertains Roadies and Educates the Non-Racer Veteran race announcer and long-time roadie Jamie Smith sets out to explain the sport he loves and the roadies who live for it in his new book from VeloPress, Roadie: The Misunderstood World of a Bike Racer.

Team Type 1, a first-year professional team that has twice won the Race Across America corporate team division, will be among 15 squads at this year’s Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T. Team Type 1 was founded in 2004 by racers Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge to inspire people living with diabetes to take a proactive approach to managing their health and overcoming obstacles often associated with the condition. Four of the 15 riders on the Team Type 1 professional squad – Southerland, Eldridge, Tim Hargrave and Fabio Calabria – have Type 1 diabetes.

World Championship Sports Network (WCSN) will provide exclusive coverage of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships beginning March 26 in Manchester, UK. Cycling fans can watch the webcast on www.wcsn.com and broadcast on WCSN TV as the top 47 nations eye the special rainbow striped jersey reserved for World Champions.

Milan-San Remo is the season’s first big fish and cycling’s most important one-day race for sprinters never fails to deliver one of the most exciting battles of the year. Changes in both the finish area due to work on the Via Roma and the addition of a new climb called Le Manie with about 100km to go are sure to add new drama to one of the year’s most important contests.

This year's Tirreno-Adriatico featured classic Italian scenery, a string of blistering sprint finishes, and a key 26km time trial on stage 5 that largely determined the overall win for CSC's world champion, Fabian Cancellara.

Generalities — I’m heading deep into them here in the coming paragraphs. That said, the differences in racing styles from one country to another are pretty entertaining. Racing styles differ dramatically, and while some countries have an “international” feel, most manage to retain their individuality pretty well, even with a chunk of the field from afar. I’ve also noticed a little parallel between racing style, and the mentality of the country behind it (Warning: BIG GENERALITIES HERE).

Quick Step is so deep in talent on its classics team it can put up a half-dozen candidates for victory. With the team’s big stars Tom Boonen and Paolo Bettini resting their guns for Saturday’s Milan-San Remo, other riders are getting a chance to step into the spotlight. Last week, it was Gert Steegmans winning two stages at Paris-Nice.

With a surge in the number of teams requesting invitations to race in Georgia in April, the management company for the Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T, Medalist Sports, has announced the elite field of 15 teams. With eight riders on each team, a total of 120 professional cyclists will compete in the 600-mile, seven-day event (April 21-27, 2008), beginning just 31 days from today.

Inside Communications, Inc (ICI), the parent company of VeloNews, Inside Triathlon, VeloPress, VeloGear, VeloSwap and their eponymous Web sites, celebrated its 21st anniversary last Monday. There won’t be a 22nd.

Dede Barry’s 2002 win in Montreal stood as America’s sole women’s road World Cup victory before Katheryn Curi-Mattis out-sprinted breakaway companion Emma Rickards to take Australia’s 2008 Geelong World Cup last month. The two attacked with 75km remaining in the 120km race, then held off a hard-charging Team High Road — looking to set up sprinter Ina Teutenburg. The finished a minute ahead of the pack in the Feb. 24 race.

Rabobank's Oscar Freire won a sprint finish to the sixth and penultimate stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico race in Italy on Monday. Freire took the 196km stage from Civitanova Marche and Castelfidaro ahead of two Italians — Filippo Pozzato and Danilo Di Luca. Fabian Cancellara of CSC retained the overall lead ahead of Tuesday's final stage.

In a hard, fast race full of attacks but few breaks, world-class German sprinter Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Team High Road) triumphed in the final stretch of the Visalia Criterium on Sunday, pulling around Brooke Miller (Team Tibco), who took second just in front of teammate and lead-out, Lauren Franges. Rounding out the top five were Canadian Anne Samplonius (Cheerwine) and Meredith Miller (Aaron’s).

A rash of new anti-doping controls and cycling’s tightening noose around would-be cheaters is ruffling some feathers in the peloton. Riders staged a protest before the start of Sunday’s final stage at Paris-Nice for what they characterized as unfair treatment of Kevin Van Impe, a Belgian rider who was forced to give urine samples for a surprise control Saturday as he was preparing the funeral of his infant son.

Health Net-Maxxis' John Murphy held onto the overall lead and the points competition lead following Saturday's penultimate stage of the Tour de Taiwan. The stage was a 58km criterium held outside the Taipei International Bicycle Show, a major industry event. Murphy held off a challenge from last year’s winner, Shawn Milne of Team Type 1. Milne won the event last years for the Health Net team and entered Saturday's stage seven seconds behind Murphy.

Italian sprint king Alessandro Petacchi gained revenge on Oscar Freire by claiming the fourth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico over 166km from Porto Recanati to Civitanova Marche on Saturday. Three days ago Petacchi was edged out by Freire in the race's opening stage. But this time the Team Milram rider turned the tables on the Spanish Rabobank leader with Italian Filippo Pozzato of Liquigas in third. Those three are the big favorites for the important Milan-San Remo classic on March 22.

Bright-eyed, 21-year-old Robert Gesink might have time on his side, but Davide Rebellin used all of the savvy of his 15-year career to snatch away the Paris-Nice yellow jersey Saturday in nail-biting sixth stage won by Sylvain Chavanel.

Health Net-Maxxis rider Kyle Gritters followed course directions in Friday's Tour de Taiwan stage — even when the race officials didn’t — to win the stage. Gritters' teammate John Murphy retains the overall lead and the leads the points competition in the race, which concludes Sunday. The rolling, 127km stage was chaotic, according to team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo, due to the rainy, windy conditions. But he said things got really interesting in the latter part of the stage.

Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) is one of those riders who can do just about anything. He chases down breakaways for the GC captains, goes on the attack to take off the pressure in the spring classics and even managed to finish 10th in last year’s Vuelta a España. Friday was payback time for the 26-year-old Barredo, who attacked late in the 172.5km fifth stage across Provence to drop the remnants of a 17-man breakaway and claim Quick Step’s third win in six days of racing at the 66th Paris-Nice.

American Shawn Milne (Team Type 1) won Thursday's fifth stage of the Tour de Taiwan, moving into second place behind Health Net's John Murphy. It was the first professional race victory for the team. Milne won the Tour de Taiwan last year while on the Health Net team. His victory on Thursday came in a field sprint at the end of the 92-mile Hsinchu City circuit race, the event's longest stage. Murphy was sixth, while also picking up three points and a two-second time bonus for his second place in an intermediate sprint. Murphy is leading the GC and the points competition.

Italian Raffaele Illiano (Diquigiovanni-Androni) won the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico on Thursday, edging out countryman Enrico Gasparotto (Barloworld) in a sprint finish. Niklas Axelsson (Diquigiovanni-Androni) was third. The trio, with German Linus Gerdemann (Team High Road) and Saunier Duval teammates Riccardo Ricco and Eros Capecchi, went clear of the peloton on the last climb of the day, about 25km from the finale of the 203km leg from Civitavecchia to Gubbio.

Robert Gesink (Rabobank) couldn’t have picked a bigger stage to announce himself to the world. Holland’s first pure climber in a generation surged into the yellow jersey after Thursday’s summit finish on Mont Ventoux in a searing attack with 5km to go that left everyone choking on his fumes — except 2007 Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto). While Evans slipped past to win the stage, Gesink proved he’ll be a man to reckon with as he took control of Paris-Nice with three tough stages to go.

Rams Cycling continues to climb to the top of the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference with outstanding results at the University of New Mexico Lobo Classic and Metro State/Denver University Time Trial and Criterium.

John Murphy of Health Net - Maxxis finished seventh in the third stage of the Tour of Taiwan, retaining the leader's jersey he earned earlier this week. Murphy's team said he used the climbing form developed at the Tour of California to stay within three seconds of the Australian stage winner, Peter McDonald (Drapac Porsche). McDonald moved up to second on GC, five seconds behind Murphy. Shawn Milne of Team Type 1 was third on the day and is now fourth on GC.

Oscar Freire (Rabobank) proved fastest among an elite group of sprinters on Wednesday, winning the first stage of Tirreno-Adriatico. Freire won the 160km stage around Civitavecchia in 4:10:01, just nicking Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) and Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Caisse D'Epargne). The former world champion will wear the leader's blue jersey in Thursday's second stage, over 203km from from Civitavecchia to Gubbio.